Bali is not exactly known for pristine white beaches, but Kandara Beach is definitely the exception to that rule.

Found in Uluwatu, Kandara Beach is actually a private beach attached to Karma Kandara Resort, and you have to pay an entrance fee of IDR500000, of which IDR300000 goes towards spending credit that can be used at the Karma Beach Club. Access is by a cable car, which only takes about 4 people at a time, and it takes about 15 minutes in between each ride. It can be a bit of wait in between but you do get a gorgeous view as you come down.

We decided to drop by the beach and pay up for the day pass - yes, it's expensive, but I can see why they would want to maintain the beautiful pristine condition of the beach! Protected by a cliff, you're greated by lovely white sands with nearby shaded caves, an amazing view as you come down on the cable car and gorgeous blue waters the perfect temperature to swim in.

The beach (or rather, the cable car) only starts at 9am, so you don't have to get up at the crack of dawn, although I would advise an earlier start considering how hot the sun gets later - 11am already feels like scorching noon heat, but if you're lucky you might score a lounge chair, or you can retreat into the shade of the beach club.

The kitchen at the Karma Beach Club also opens at 11am, and that's when the beach really starts to get busy so it might be a good idea to duck in for some food and drink. The food and drink selection at the beach club is decent, and you can generally get a meal with a non-alcoholic drink with the initial entrance fee and just top up as you go. Prices are generally higher than the rest of Bali, but as expected from a hotel.

The Karma Beach Club in the background

Soft shell crab linguini anyone?

Just be warned, the lounge chairs are for hotel guests (you can try to book one in advance by emailing fbadmin@karmakandara.com), but don't be put off otherwise as the club still provides towels for you to use, or you can find some shade at the nearby caves.

If you love the beach and have the budget for the visit, I would definitely recommend dropping by. The beach never felt overcrowded, and there were activities available such as paddle boarding or volleyball, asides from the throng of sunbathers taking advantage of the sun. Great for families and friends alike, and stay till sundown to take advantage of the amazing sunset!

With a 30 hour transit in Beijing, I knew that my time would be rushed; and I also knew if there was one thing I would want to do in Beijing, it would be to see the Great Wall of China. I was also concerned like with many tourist attractions, the Great Wall would be massively overcrowded, and I just wanted to enjoy the wall without any disturbances.

With a little bit of research, I found out about the Secret Wall Tour, run by Leo Hostel - an alternative tour where you could actually hike a more secluded part of the wall. I dropped them an email and booked the tour, which cost about 280 yuan.

We left the hostel about 730am and hopped into a minivan. There were about 15 of us who had taken part. We drove out a couple of hours in a group of 15, and ended up at the ancient Badaling portion of the wall.

I had the pleasure of being able to explore Yayoi Kusama's Life is the Heart of A Rainbow' art exhibition in Singapore over the weekend. I initially found out about her work through her collaboration with Louis Vuitton, but became interested because of her background; an artist who used her art to express her moments of mental illness and still actively produces art today while residing in a psychiatric institution in her home country Japan.

It's been almost a year since we travelled to Turkey, and I've been asking Behr to finish the video we took of our trip - only because he was forever filming while we were there, and I've been dying to see the finished product.

I think he's also been putting it off because there was so much footage, because he ended up just filming random things as he had an idea in his head of how he wanted things to turn out, and as most holidays go, you just have to have an element of flexibility to give you room to move ahead.

We ended up flying to Surabaya for an impromptu trip over one of the weekends. With most places in Indonesia, I find it easier to book a driver because of the long distances that you would normally have to cover, and in this case we had engaged the services of Bromo Indah Tours and Travels.

The process was fairly straightforward and we were picked up at the airport to head over to Malang. There were lots of cabs available – prices to Bromo were quoted around IDR1.2 to 1.5 million (I always struggle to wrap my head around these big numbers).